Synopsis

The Kiwi Who Saved Britain is a fully dramatized account of Keith Park's battles in the summer of 1940. The documentary fuses war archive, scripted drama and feature film footage to bring the story to life. A documentary crew filmed at the Uxbridge War room that Keith Park ran, that has been preserved exactly as he left it. The crew also filmed with British sculptor Les Johnson as he created the statue of Sir Keith that would be turned into a scaled up model for Trafalgar Square by New Zealand's Weta Workshop and with Battle of Britain recreationists at the Biggin Hill air show. In New Zealand a replica of the war room was built and the action of the weeks and months of the battle were recreated in Auckland. Archive footage filmed by the British and the Germans weaves into the drama and with a deal struck with MGM also brings in scenes from the 1969 American classic feature film "The Battle of Britain". Interviews with people still living who knew Keith Park have been used as the basis for actors playing the roles of pilots and WAAFs and a documentary angle has been woven into the drama with actors being interviewed in character. All of this combines to give the audience an experience of being with Keith Park during the months of the Battle of Britain as if a documentary crew had been there at the time.